As will be appreciated by those in the garment industry, many garments are displayed on garment hangers. This is done, of course, because of the recognized advantages to a consumer due to the opportunity to inspect a garment which is displayed on a hanger much more thoroughly than with a folded garment. When so displayed, the hang, shape, pattern, matching and other construction features can be closely examined.
However, if a garment is to be displayed for sale on a hanger, it should have a pleasing appearance. This means that the garment cannot be wrinkled or excessively creased by folding when it is shipped from the point of manufacture to the point of sale unless the retailer first irons the garment prior to displaying it with the required uncreased appearance. As will be appreciated, this is a time-consuming step that is almost a practical impossibility for major retailers.
For this reason, it has become increasingly popular for various garments such as jackets, shirts, and blouses to be shipped to the retailer with the garment already placed on a conventional garment hanger. Thus, of course, the hanger will have a loop formed thereon and protruding from the neck of the garment. In order to accomplish this objective, it is important for the hanger to be anchored in place once the garment on the hanger is positioned within the container.
Naturally, it is important for the container to be capable of normal handling. This means that the hanger support within the container must be capable of supporting the weight of the garments and hangers as well as withstanding the normal degree of abuse that may be expected during shipment and handling. Furthermore, the container should ideally support the garments in a manner that eliminates the possibility of creasing no matter what the orientation of the container.
Another important criteria is the cost of a foldable garment container. Preferably, the container is integrally formed of paperboard products in an inexpensive manner which allows the container to be disposable. In this way, the container will not utilize expensive metal hanger bars as a part of the construction.
Among the many attempts to address these problems are those disclosed in Nauheimer U.S. Pat. No. 4,416,371, Nauheimer et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,318,472, Gardner et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,300,687 Hildebrand et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,060,169, and Brittingham U.S. Pat. No. 3,259,229. These patents all disclose cardboard shipping containers having integral cardboard hanger supports and, in particular, the Nauheimer '371 patent accomplishes this with a hollow double-end wall structure having a slot, the Nauheimer et al '472 patent accomplishes this by having a pair of slots through a hollow double-end wall structure whereby an aperture in a separate lid locks the hook of the hangers in position, the Gardner et al '687 patent accomplishes this by forming tab panels from the bottom panels, the Hildebrand '169 patent accomplishes this by a hollow double-end wall structure having a hanger receiving slot, and the Brittingham '229 patent accomplishes this by a hollow double-end wall structure having spaced apertures corresponding to the spacing of a hook portion of a garment hanger. Unfortunately, none of these patents disclose a completely satisfactory form of foldable garment container, nor do other attempts disclosed in Nauheimer U.S. Pat. No. 4,402,404, Feder U.S. Pat. No. 4,158,406, and Pilz U.S. Pat. No. 4,119,197.
The present invention is directed to overcoming the above-stated problems and accomplishing the stated objects by providing a foldable garment container formed of sheet material blanks.